Get local info from the chamber website (www.whittieralaskachamber.org [1]). Most travelers never get farther than the tourist action on the waterfront, where boats of all sizes bob in the picturesque harbor.
Follow the signs for Whittier [2] down past the dry dock, then go left across the tracks onto Whittier Street. Take a right on Glacier Avenue to the Begich Tower. In its 198 condos live most of the town’s population; the rest reside in the 70 condos at Whittier Manor. Many are owned by Anchorageites who use them for weekend and summer getaways, boosting Whittier’s summer population to nearly 1,000.
Continue a quarter-mile out on Eastern Avenue to quiet and scenic Smitty’s Cove, where one of Whittier’s few freestanding residences sits. You’ll get a great view across Passage Canal of waterfalls, a kittiwake rookery, and Billing’s Glacier.
Links:
[1] http://www.whittieralaskachamber.org
[2] http://www.moon.com/destinations/alaska/the-wrangells-and-prince-william-sound/whittier